The announcement this spring that Lions Gate was making a sequel to their modest hit adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel American Psycho provoked mostly rolled eyes from everyone and a universal question: "Why?" Another person you can apparently add to the chorus is Ellis himself, according to a recent report in the New York Post.

When asked about his feelings regarding the planned American Psycho 2: The Girl Who Wouldn't Die starring Mila Kunis of That 70s Show, Ellis had this to say: "If they're not careful they could end up with something like The Pink Panther movies. I've sold the rights, but I really don't know how they ended up with all of these rights. Basically, the book really kind of survives. I'm the kind of writer that sees books and movies as two totally different animals. So far, none of these movies has blotted out the book for the reader."

The novelist also explains exactly how the idea of a sequel to American Psycho came to be in the first place: "Lions Gate wanted to put a serial killer in Rules of Attraction [the upcoming Roger Avary-directed adaptation of an earlier Ellis novel]. But Avary said no, and that's when they decided to make American Psycho 2." Ellis elaborates that "I've even heard that they were thinking about doing American Psycho in L.A., American Psycho in Las Vegas and making a whole franchise out of it."

The article goes on to quote "a source at Lions Gate" who states, "We're going to see what happens with American Psycho 2 before we go ahead with a franchise."

The piece also mentions the film status of Ellis' most recent novel, Glamorama, a surreal meditation on high fashion and contemporary terrorism. "Michael Tolkin, who wrote The Player, is going to write and direct it. Kip Pardue, the guy from Driven, is going to be the main character."

Finally, Ellis also explains what's up next for him novel-wise: "sort of a supernatural thriller, sort of like my Stephen King novel. It's kind of autobiographical, about a writer who wrote a book about serial killers and there are copycat killings...it's set to be published by Knopf in 2004."